Obama Must Bend Own Rules if Lynn Is to Become Deputy Defense Secretary

“If you are a lobbyist entering my administration, you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied, during the previous two years,” Obama stated, but CNSNews is reporting that the Obama Administration will have to bend its own lobbying rules if William J. Lynn III is to become the next Deputy Defense Secretary.

Lynn was a registered lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon until last July; that puts him within the exclusionary limit set by the Obama Administration.

Washington (AP) – Senate action on President Barack Obama’s pick to become the No. 2 official at the Pentagon slowed on Thursday after lawmakers realized he might require an exemption from the administration’s own lobbying rules.

William J. Lynn III, who has broad support in Congress, has been considered a shoo-in to become the next deputy defense secretary. But Democratic leaders said they would have to wait to act on the nomination until after Obama determines whether Lynn needs a waiver exempting him from the president’s new rule that individuals cannot work for the government agencies they have lobbied in the past two years.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the panel wants to determine what the waiver will say and if the new rules will force Lynn to recuse himself from decisions critical to the management of the department.

Lynn, who as deputy defense secretary would run much of the day-to-day operations at the Pentagon, was registered until July as a lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon.

As a lobbyist, Lynn worked on Pentagon budget matters including contracting policy, the military’s use of space, missile defense, munitions and artillery, sensors and radars and advanced technology programs. Raytheon is one of the military’s top contractors, doing $18.3 billion in U.S. government business in 2007.

“If you are a lobbyist entering my administration, you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied, during the previous two years,” Obama has declared. The new plan, he said, “represents a clean break from business as usual.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that even the toughest rules require “reasonable exceptions” and that the waiver provisions were added to allow “uniquely qualified individuals” like Lynn serve.

When Levin was asked by reporters whether relying on waivers weakens the administration’s desire to get tough on lobbyists, the Democratic senator said “I don’t think it helps to reinforce the intent of it.”

Other Democrats said they were concerned but wouldn’t stand in the way. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who has established a reputation as a watchdog on government waste and ethics issues, said she has concerns about the nomination but will support it so long as Lynn promises to become “a reformer” on the job.

“I am more worried sometimes about the (revolving) door going the other way,” when officials leave government agencies to become lobbyists, she told reporters.

Lynn is “giving up money to come back for less salary to do public work. I think under those circumstances, he deserves the benefit of the doubt,” she said.